Tales of Chunk and Pasta, Ending with Meditation.

One of Chunk's favorite things to do is take things apart. Especially things in or around water. Several kitties prefer to jump on the bathroom counter and drink from the faucet, and Chunk would stay in the sink for hours if I would let him, just watching the water drip, and trying so hard to figure out where it all goes. When I refill my water jug, if I don't put the lid right on he will take the filter out every single time. Once he even figured out how to get the lid of the jug off to get to the filter! Although Chunk is the right name for him, I sometimes think if I would have known how much he wants to do certain things requiring thumbs, I would have named him Pinocchio! It was time to change the filter, so I'm letting him have this one. Weirdo.
I attempted to make my creamy pumpkin tomato sauce last night. The sauce tastes delicious, but the real reason I wanted to try to recreate this sauce was because of the vibrant deep orange, almost red of the original sauce I saw in a jar. I used 3/4 of a cup of pumpkin puree, and it just did not add anything color-wise. I wrote down the recipe, but I'm not going to bother sharing because it really just tastes and looks like a standard marinara sauce. The pumpkin didn't really add much flavor or color wise. I guess the sauce is a little sweeter than tomato only sauce. But it's a very subtle difference.

Pretty darn red!

 This picture was taken before I added any cream. In case anyone's interested, the Trader Joe's coconut creamer can be used in savory foods! I only add to add a little less than 1/4 of a cup for very creamy results. It's similar to cashew cream.

I topped mine with some hemp hearts and extra nutritional yeast. It was a bummer that it didn't turn out exactly how I pictured, but at least it's still tasty. Recipes are really only failures if it's too gross to eat, or you have to force yourself to eat it because you don't want to be wasteful. I'm guessing that to achieve the color I wanted I should switch the ratio to more pumpkin, less tomato, instead of the other way around. I still have about another month where pumpkin puree is readily available, so maybe I will try again. Pumpkin isn't my favorite squash, so I don't know if I would like a stronger pumpkin taste.
I started a meditation challenge for myself on December first, and I've been talking about it a lot on my second blog. I just wanted to mention it here, because I actually really fel like this simple five minutes a day is making a difference. I feel like I am calmer about crtain things, and I've noticed I have an easier time stopping myself from negative thoughts. Today makes a week that I've done five minutes a day of guided meditation. I've had days where it's been very easy to focus, and days where it's sooooooo hard that I want to scratch my eyes out. It's kind of nice to quiet you're brain for awhile. It's a great relief actually.
Do you meditate, have you meditated?